Saturday, August 9, 2014

Ready for a warm summer Sunday! Our weekly round-up of fav links to other web sites, blogs, articles, and images, gathered from around the Twitterverse.
• Marie Curie's century-old radioactive notebook still requires a lead box.
• A charming portrait of a favorite pug in an enameled brooch, 1875.
• The most popular brothel in Jacobean London had indoor plumbing - and snacks.
• Four pairs of shoes that Queen Marie Antoinette wore, plus another pair she didn't (though probably would have liked.)
• Image: Author Lewis Carroll's typewriter, acquired by him in 1888.
• Arabella Williams, a little-known Georgian spy.
• Four-legged 19th c. star athletes earned endorsement deals, paparazzi, and glory.
• Looking for a copy of The Tuzzymuzzy Songster? In 1835, you'd head to the dirty-book shops of Holywell Street.
• Selection of elegantly pretty turn-of-the-20th-century tennis illustrations.
• Image: A man's blue-striped knitted swimsuit, c. 1900.
• Shoes AND history: of course this upcoming exhibition caught our eyes!
• A delightful knight and lady decorate this fore-edge painted book - read it here.
• Daisy Murdoch, the teenaged burlesque actress turned celebrity Cupid of 1880s tobacco cards.
• Built in 1465, Oxgate Farm still stands in the middle of London.
• The Regent's Canal, an engineering wonder of early 19th c. London.
• Victorian strangeness: seven singular sports of the Victorian era.
• The Lincolnshire Stuff Ball, 1785, held to support and promote local manufacturing.
• Image: Two stones thrown by brave suffragists through the windows of Buckingham Palace in 1914.
• Size matters: giant medieval manuscripts.
• The death masks and funeral effigies of queens and kings in Westminster Abbey.
• Sixteen of the most magnificent trees in the world.
• Classified ads from New York papers for abortifacients and contraceptives, c. 1841.
• The short life and tragic love story of Princess Amelia, youngest daughter of George III.
• Image: Working class dress: a young fisherwoman's clothing c. 1880-85 in Runswick Bay.
• Savigny Hall, the elegant 19th c. Harlem townhouse that became a social club, rehearsal hall, church, and art gallery.
• Drunk tank pink? International Klein blue? Charting the outer-reaches of the color spectrum.
• How guys tried to pick up girls in 18th c. New York.
• To download or read online: A New Dictionary of the Terms Ancient and Modern of the Canting Crew in its Several Tribes, of Gypsies, Beggers, Thieves, Cheats, etc., 1899 edition.
• Image: 1918 advertisement for an all-purpose wrinkle remover and bust developer: Dr. Charles Flesh Food.
• Bringing the garden indoors: paintings by Frederick Childe Hassam (1859-1935.)
• World War I pamphlet to read online: War Work for Women.
• This image of a man yawning subverts the expectations of an 1854 photograph.Hungry for more? Follow us on Twitter @2nerdyhistgirls for fresh updates daily.

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A Polite Explanation

There’s a big difference in how we use history. But we’re equally nuts about it. To us, the everyday details of life in the past are things to talk about, ponder, make fun of -- much in the way normal people talk about their favorite reality show.

We talk about who’s wearing what and who’s sleeping with whom. We try to sort out rumor or myth from fact. We thought there must be at least three other people out there who think history’s fascinating and fun, too. This blog is for them.